This invention relates to a supporting structure for a pedal assembly for use with an automobile.
In automobile collisions (head-on collisions), as is often the case, an automobile cannot fully be stopped even though the driver brakes the automobile by stepping on a brake pedal for the purpose of avoidance of a collision, resulting in the collision, namely, the automobile leads to the collision with the brake pedal trod.
In such a case, a front car body goes to collapse while absorbing energy of the collision, and an engine placed in an engine room goes backward while pushing a master cylinder of a brake system located to the rear of the engine. During the time, since a brake pedal lever located to the rear of a dash panel is connected to the master cylinder through an operating rod, the brake pedal is also pushed backward through the operating rod with the backward movement of the master cylinder. As a result, a load of automobile collision acts on the driver""s foot with which the driver has stepped on the brake pedal until immediately before the collision to produce a large kick back, thereby applying an impact to the driver""s knee.
To cope with this problem, various countermeasures have been conventionally proposed. For example, in a structure disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-216528, a rocking link is supported to a pedal bracket fixed to a dash panel through a fixed pin extending widthwise of an automobile for rocking motion around the fixed pin, and a brake pedal lever is connected and supported to the rocking link through a rotating pin extending therefrom widthwise of the automobile. And, a spring is bridged between the rocking link and an instrument panel member as a car body member located in a cabin so as to pass above the fixed pin and urge the rocking link into backward rocking motion. Furthermore, an abutment is provided for abutting against the rocking link having moved backward together with the pedal bracket by a collision. When the pedal bracket moves backward by the collision, the rocking link as a support member for the brake pedal ever abuts against the abutment of the instrument panel member and then drops out of the abutment while rocking frontward. In this manner, a brake pedal at the lower end of the brake pedal lever is held against backward movement, thereby preventing a load of automobile collision from being applied to the driver""s knee through the brake pedal.
In the conventional structure mentioned above, however, it is necessary to additionally provide the abutment as an in-cabin car body member which can abut against the rocking link. Further, the spring for urging the rocking link into rocking motion must be disposed. These additional members involve complicated structure and high price.
Furthermore, it is difficult for the rocking link to precisely abut against the abutment and drop out of the abutment while rocking frontward in an automobile collision. Therefore, the conventional structure lacks the reliability of the above behavior.
An object of the present invention is to improve the supporting structure for a pedal assembly such as a brake pedal assembly disposed to the rear of a dash panel, and more specifically to reinforce, simplify and lighten the pedal assembly supporting structure for use with an automobile while preventing the pedal as far as possible from moving backward in an automobile collision.
To attain the above object, in the present invention, a first bracket pivotally mounting a pedal lever is disengageably connected to a second bracket fixed to a car body member in a cabin so that when a load of automobile collision above a predetermined level is applied to the first bracket in an automobile collision, the first bracket is disconnected from the second bracket to come into a cantilevered condition and the upper end of the pedal lever moves downward along an inclined guide surface of the second bracket while downturning the first bracket. This prevents the pedal from moving backward.
More specifically, the present invention is directed to a supporting structure for a pedal assembly disposed to the rear of a dash panel of an automobile. This structure includes a first bracket fixed to the dash panel, a second bracket fixed to a car body member in a cabin and connected to a rear portion of the first bracket so as to be disengageable by a load of automobile collision above a predetermined level, and the pedal assembly pivotally mounted for rocking motion to the first bracket. Further, the second bracket is provided with an inclined guide surface for abutting against an upper end of the pedal assembly moving backward by an automobile collision to guide the pedal assembly downward.
With the above structure, the first bracket pivotally mounting the pedal assembly is supported at its front-end lower portion to the dash panel and connected at its rear-end upper portion to the second bracket, and the second bracket is fixed to the car body member in the cabin. Therefore, in a normal condition, the pedal assembly is supported to the first bracket while holding a unitary relationship with the second bracket.
In contrast, when a load of automobile collision above a predetermined level is applied to the car body in an automobile collision, an engine of the automobile is pushed backward by the load of automobile collision thereby moving the dash panel, a cylinder and the like backward. The first bracket fixed to the dash panel is also moved backward so that the first bracket is disconnected from the second bracket. In this case, since the second bracket is provided with the inclined guide surface for guiding downward movement of the pedal assembly pivotally mounted to the first bracket, when the first bracket is disengaged from the second bracket and starts backward movement, the pedal assembly pivotally mounted to the first bracket abuts at its upper end against the inclined guide surface so that the pedal assembly is guided to move downward along the inclined guide surface. During the time, since the rear portion of the first bracket is pushed downward while moving backward with the progress of deformation of the dash panel, the entire first bracket is folded and the pedal assembly moves not backward but downward unlike the movement of the first bracket. Accordingly, it can be prevented that the load of automobile collision acts on the driver""s knee with which the driver steps on the pedal. In addition, since the rear portion of the first bracket is disengagelably connected to the second bracket, this ensures that the first bracket is disconnected from the second bracket by a load of automobile collision above a predetermined level in a collision. As a result, the pedal assembly can be downwardly guided to prevent an impact from being applied to the driver""s knee.
Furthermore, since the inventive pedal assembly supporting structure is such a simple structure that the first bracket is fixed to the dash panel, the pedal assembly is mounted for rocking motion to the first bracket and the rear portion of the first bracket is connected to the second bracket fixed to the car body member in the cabin, the structure can be extremely simplified and reduced in cost, as compared with the conventional structure in which the rocking link supporting the pedal assembly abuts against the abutment of the car body member and thereby rocks.
Preferably, a rod associated with a cylinder located forward of the dash panel is connected to the pedal assembly, and the axial direction of the rod is substantially parallel with a direction of inclination of the inclined guide surface of the second bracket.
With this structure, when the upper end of the pedal assembly abuts against the inclined guide surface of the second bracket and moves backward after the disconnection of the first bracket from the second bracket in an automobile collision, the upper end of the pedal assembly moves backward while keeping a substantially constant distance away from the rod associated with the cylinder. In other words, when a load of automobile collision is applied to the pedal assembly from the rod, the pedal assembly smoothly moves downward along the inclined guide surface without taking an extra load. Accordingly, the above effects can be surely obtained.
A pivot point at which the pedal assembly is pivotally mounted to the first bracket is preferably positioned above a mounting portion of the first bracket in which the dash panel mounts the first bracket. With this structure, a large vertical offset is provided between the pivot point of the pedal assembly and the mounting portion of the first bracket onto the dash panel. This aids in smooth downward movement of the pedal assembly and ease folding of the first bracket in an automobile collision.
The pedal assembly is preferably a brake pedal assembly. In this case, there can be provided a pedal assembly optimally exerting the effects of this invention.